TEXT 8
om namo bhagavate narasimhaya namas tejas-tejase avir-avirbhava vajra-nakha vajra-damstra karmasayan randhaya randhaya tamo grasa grasa om svaha; abhayam abhayam atmani bhuyistha om ksraum.
SYNONYMS
omO Lord; namahmy respectful obeisances; bhagavateunto the Supreme Personality of Godhead; nara-simhayaknown as Lord Nrsimha; namahobeisances; tejah-tejasethe power of all power; avih-avirbhavaplease be fully manifest; vajra-nakhaO You who possess nails like thunderbolts; vajra-damstraO You who possess teeth like thunderbolts; karma-asayandemoniac desires to be happy by material activities; randhaya randhayakindly vanquish; tamahignorance in the material world; grasakindly drive away; grasakindly drive away; omO my Lord; svaharespectful oblations; abhayamfearlessness; abhayamfearlessness; atmaniin my mind; bhuyisthahmay You appear; omO Lord; ksraumthe bija, or seed, of mantras offering prayers to Lord Nrsimha.
TRANSLATION
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Nrsimhadeva, the source of all power. O my Lord who possesses nails and teeth just like thunderbolts, kindly vanquish our demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this material world. Please appear in our hearts and drive away our ignorance so that by Your mercy we may become fearless in the struggle for existence in this material world.
PURPORT
In Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.22.39) Sanat-kumara speaks the following words to Maharaja Prthu:
Devotees always engaged in the service of the toes of the Lords lotus feet can very easily become free from hard-knotted desires for fruitive activities. Because this is very difficult, the nondevoteesthe jnanis and yogiscannot stop the waves of sense gratification, although they try to do so. Therefore you are advised to engage in the devotional service of Krsna, the son of Vasudeva.
Every living being within this material world has a strong desire to enjoy matter to his fullest satisfaction. For this purpose, the conditioned soul must accept one body after another, and thus his strongly fixed fruitive desires continue. One cannot stop the repetition of birth and death without being completely desireless. Therefore Srila Rupa Gosvami describes pure bhakti (devotional service) as follows:
anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama
[Madhya 19.167]
One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krsna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service. Unless one is completely freed of all material desires, which are caused by the dense darkness of ignorance, one cannot fully engage in the devotional service of the Lord. Therefore we should always offer our prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva, who killed Hiranyakasipu, the personification of material desire. Hiranya means gold, and kasipu means a soft cushion or bed. Materialistic persons always desire to make the body comfortable, and for this they require huge amounts of gold. Thus Hiranyakasipu was the perfect representative of materialistic life. He was therefore the cause of great disturbance to the topmost devotee, Prahlada Maharaja, until Lord Nrsimhadeva killed him. Any devotee aspiring to be free of material desires should offer his respectful prayers to Nrsimhadeva as Prahlada Maharaja did in this verse.

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